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Consumer advocates are urging parents and other toy buyers to be wary of the gifts they buy their children this season.

The U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund has released its 32nd annual Trouble in Toyland report, exposing a collection of toys that it has deemed potentially hazardous.

“We should be able to trust that the toys we buy are safe. However, until that’s the case, toy buyers need to watch out for common hazards when shopping for children’s presents,” said Dev Gowda, toxics advocate with U.S. PIRG Education Fund, in a news release issued by the group.

This year’s list includes lead-filled toys and choking hazards, as well as internet-connected toys that pose a very 21st century debate: whether the toys’ ability to collect data may “violate children’s privacy.”

The report, for example, lists a doll called “My Friend Cayla” that can be found at Walmart and Kohl’s in the United States and is the subject of a complaint by several consumer groups to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission because it may violate the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Germany has banned the doll and other internet-connected toys and children’s products over privacy violations.

In July, the FBI issued a warning to consumers to “consider cybersecurity prior to introducing smart, interactive, internet-connected toys into their homes.” The toys often contain sensors, microphones, cameras and capabilities like speech recognition or GPS elements that the FBI warned could put the privacy and safety of children at risk.

The report also warned of finding lead in popular “fidget spinners” found on shelves in Target stores. The Fidget Wild Premium Spinner Brass that the group purchased at Target tested for 33,000 parts per million of lead, which is more than 300 times the legal limit for lead in children’s products, and the Fidget Wild Premium Spinner Metal — also purchased at Target — tested for 1,300 ppm of lead.

Target is reportedly pulling those spinners from its shelves.

“Even small amounts of lead in toys can be ingested when transferred from fingers to mouth or from fingers to food,” said Helen Binns, a pediatrician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in a news release issued by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund. “Lead harms the developing brain and is easily ingested through normal hand-to-mouth behaviors. Beware of these (two) fidget spinners, as they have dangerous amounts of lead.”

Toys that pose potential choking hazards continue to make the list.

While small parts in toys for children under the age of 3 are banned in the United States, the researchers found several toys at Dollar Tree that contained small parts but did not have a warning label, including a peg game, golf and football travel games. Balloons, too, pose a threat as choking hazards, the researchers said, because they can be easily inhaled and stuck in children’s throats. The group found five balloon sets on store shelves in Dollar Tree, Party City and Dollar City Plus that were either advertised to children under the age of 8 or had “misleading” warning labels that the researchers said suggest the products are safe for young children.

The Toy Association has taken issue with the group’s report, saying that many of the toys on the list have already been recalled and are no longer offered for sale and noting that U.S. toy safety requirements include more than 100 standards, including strict lead limits, small parts regulation and a requirement to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, a law that establishes privacy requirements for internet-connected toys.

The Toy Association said in a statement issued by a spokeswoman that the U.S. PIRG “is needlessly frightening parents and caregivers during what is supposed to be a joyful time of year.”

The researchers’ annual “Trouble in Toyland” report has offered safety guidelines for purchasing toys for small children and examples of toys that pose potential safety hazards for more than three decades. According to the group, the reports have led to more than 150 toy recalls and other actions.

Annie Sciacca is a reporter at Bay Area News Group, where she writes about business and economy topics that affect consumers throughout the region. She joined the company in 2016 after three years at the San Francisco Business Times, where she covered the food, retail, manufacturing and hotels industries throughout the Bay Area. She holds an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and a master's degree in political science from San Francisco State University.

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